1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information-processing system, an electronic apparatus, an information processing method, and a computer-readable program and recording medium that could well be applied to a remote maintenance system etc. for remotely setting a parameter to an electronic apparatus that can be connected to a network.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, a large number of digital household goods, electrical appliances, and electrical goods are manufactured, sold, and installed everywhere including homes, public institutions, and civilian institutions. In such circumstances, environments that provide users with many convenient functions have been well improved.
There are many cases recently where, for example, a broadcast station may use electronic apparatuses such as a video-tape recorder (VTR), a printer, a video camera, an IP camera, etc. in a condition where they are connected to a network such as the Internet or an LAN (the Ethernet).
Presently, many manufacturers sell their multifarious products having their own characteristics, so that it is quite common and not a rare case that various kinds of electronic apparatuses, software, etc. of these manufacturers may be incorporated as components to constitute one environment, system, etc.
There are many cases where a variety of hubs, routers, and bridges are employed in a mixed manner to constitute one network or where a variety of VTRs, editors, switchers, etc. of various manufacturers are mixed in a broadcast system, an edit system.
However, in return for these convenient functions thus provided, to develop such an environment that an individual person or a body of persons can utilize these functions to satisfy their demands, it is in most cases always necessary to change a large number of set-up parameters. To change the set-up parameters, various kinds of remote maintenance systems have been devised.
In conjunction with these kinds of remote maintenance systems, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 10-210164 discloses a remote maintenance scheme for a communication apparatus. According to this remote maintenance scheme, in remote management of a communication apparatus, a dial number of a sender is compared with a previously stored remote maintenance dial number and, if they match, a station line is captured without producing an incoming call sound, to interconnect a management apparatus at a remote maintenance center and a transmission/reception section of a communication apparatus of a relevant user. By thus constituting the maintenance scheme, it is possible to perform remote maintenance without troubling the user of the communication apparatus.
Further, in conjunction with an electronic apparatus connected to a network, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-344130 discloses a remote maintenance apparatus, a terminal connected to this apparatus, and a program and a recording medium for use in the remote maintenance processing. According to this remote maintenance apparatus, in acquiring configuration information from a terminal connected to the network upon occurrence of a failure, configuration information most recently acquired upon failure occurrence and that acquired upon previous failure occurrence are compared with each other, to extract differential information between the most recent configuration and the previous-generation configuration information. Based on this differential information, a cause of the failure is retrieved. By thus configuring a maintenance apparatus, it is possible to quickly search for the cause of a failure on a terminal connected to a network, thereby efficiently and effectively performing maintenance.
Furthermore, in conjunction with a remote maintenance system, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-305777 discloses a remote maintenance scheme for a communication apparatus. According to this remote maintenance scheme, to remote-manage a target device connected to a network, an instruction apparatus transmits via the Internet to the target device an e-mail that describes a command. The target device receives the e-mail and executes the command to perform setting and maintenance. By thus configuring the maintenance scheme, it is possible to realize remote maintenance that avoids setting a network environment.
Further, in conjunction with a remote maintenance system, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-164048 discloses a remote maintenance method and a remote maintenance apparatus. According to this remote maintenance method, a remote maintenance computer and a remote monitoring computer are connected to each other via communication means so that both of the computers may perform remote maintenance permission/refusal decision processing related to the remote maintenance, by which if both of them permit access, a changed program is downloaded from the remote maintenance computer to the remote monitoring computer. By thus configuring the maintenance method, it is possible to change the program safely and quickly.